


Disney University

by AuroraRose1959



Category: Disney Animated Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:38:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4905748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraRose1959/pseuds/AuroraRose1959
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All your favorite Disney characters as college students! I'm using only the first 50 of the Walt Disney Animation Studios films--so basically Snow White through Tangled. Most pairings will be canon, but I have one or two surprise non-canon pairings. Rated Teen+ because I'm paranoid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Disney U

"You're sure you don't want help unpacking?"

"I can handle it, Mother. Thanks for helping get my stuff up there." Wendy Darling forced more confidence into her voice than she actually possessed. Suddenly she was not so sure she could handle anything without her parents. Who decided that at eighteen people were suddenly capable of going to school with no parents to guide them?

"Well, I guess this is it then," Mr. Darling said with a sigh. "The house will be awfully quiet without you."

"You've said that to me on move-in day for three years now," his oldest daughter Belle laughed as she unsuccessfully tried to push a few stray hairs back into her otherwise perfect dark brown ponytail. "I'll get us home for a weekend sometime next month."

"You be sure to call us if you need anything," Mrs. Darling said, her voice strained with the effort of holding back tears.

"Don't worry about us; we'll be fine. Bye, Mother . . . Dad," Belle said, briefly hugging each of her parents in turn. While she loved her parents dearly, she had learned to love the independence she had away from them, and frankly would be rather relieved when they left. It was just weird, having them on campus. As weird as it would be to go home and find Dr. Cogsworth, her strict History of Literature professor last spring, lying on her couch, his rather fat body hanging over the sides, and asking her to get him a beer.

Wendy on the other hand found herself struggling as much as her mother was not to cry. She whispered to both of her parents that she loved them as she gave them each a long embrace, and the next thing she knew, they were gone.

Belle turned to go to the junior apartments, but saw her sister uncertainly staring at Lillian Dormitory, the underclassmen girls' dorm. Gently laying a hand on Wendy's arm, the older girl said, "Hey, I know it's hard now, but give it a week and you'll feel better." When Wendy apparently refused to be comforted by this, Belle told her, "Text me if you want to eat dinner with me tonight," and promptly left for her on-campus apartment. She wasn't a particularly motherly sort of person, and she figured her sister would be better off she weren't coddled.

Wendy half smiled at Belle's retreating back and crossed the parking lot and went in the main door. The lobby was in a state of pandemonium. Luggage and bedding and laundry baskets were strewn across the floor, sophomore girls were shrieking with delight as they saw their friends, freshman girls stood uncertainly against walls, wondering where to go, and Carlotta, the dorm mom, was running about, trying to maintain some semblance of order. Wendy gingerly stepped over various suitcases and shower caddies and eventually made it to to her hall. Room 8103 was the second one on the left, and Wendy saw that there was a set of purple luggage and several cardboard boxes just to the right of the door that had not been there when she and her mother had carried her stuff in. Nervously she opened the door.

In the center of the room stood a girl with beautiful blond hair that hung to her hips. At the sound of the door, she turned around to face Wendy. The two girls stared awkwardly at each other for a moment before simultaneously saying, "Hi, I'm-"

They both giggled and the ice broke. "You must be Rapunzel."

"Zel," the girl smiled. "And you're Wendy. I was just trying to figure out how to arrange the furniture in here to open it up a bit more. Any preferences?"

Wendy was looking around the room, trying to come up with an idea, when a pretty Asian girl stepped in. "Hey, I'm Mulan, your RA. I'm in the room right across from you, so if you need anything just let me know."

"Just one question: What does RA mean?" Zel asked, her head tilted slightly to the side.

"It stands for Resident Assistant," Mulan laughed. "My phone number is posted on the bulletin board in the lobby; be sure to put it in your phones in case you lock yourselves out of your room or anything."

After the door had once again clicked shut, Wendy turned to Zel and said, "I haven't got a clue what to do with a space this small. Any ideas?"

Her green eyes lit up. "I might have a few. Let's hurry up and get done before dinner."

 

Belle Darling's eyes scanned the crowded cafeteria tables. Shifting her heavy dinner tray in her arms, the girl glanced up at the clock on the far wall. Five o'clock. They said they would be here. And then she spotted them sitting at the table directly beneath the clock. Happily she began to weave her way through the tables claimed by the athletes, the nerds, the populars, the frat boys and sorority girls. On the car ride, Wendy had expressed her excitement about college being so different from high school with the tightly-knit system of cliques. She would be disappointed.

As she passed by one of the football players' tables, she heard a familiar whistle. "Hey there, beautiful."

Belle forced herself to ignore the arrogant voice and walked calmly to her destination. "Hey, girls-and Thomas." she added hastily.

Shrieks ensued from her friends, except for Thomas Bale, who managed to give her a friendly greeting before she was attacked with hugs. When everyone finally settled back into their seats, she queried, "How did we end up over here? You know I like to stay at least thirty-five feet away from Gaston."

"Mmm, because some freshman girls took over our old table," Jane Porter, an aspiring photographer and Belle's best friend, managed to say around a mouthful of salad. Belle looked across the room and saw that the table was indeed occupied by her sister and several other girls. A couple of guys started talking to them and sat down as well. Good. She smiled. It was hard to begrudge the loss of her friends' old hangout, for just one meal, anyway.

"Hey, where's Rory? I figured she'd come in with you." Jasmine Amari, a Middle Eastern beauty with large brown eyes, had been lab partners with Aurora "Rory" Costa, Belle's roommate, last spring and the two had quickly hit it off.

"She had to-"

"Go to the bathroom," the whole table groaned and burst out into fresh laughter.

"Who, Rory?" Mulan Fa asked as she sat down next to Jasmine, who squealed with delight as she hugged her best friend. Belle smiled at the two sophomores and stole a glance at Thomas who rolled his eyes and muttered, "Girls."

"Oh, come on, Tommy. You know you love us," Rebecca Bedard said from across from him. She expected Thomas to groan or complain or inform her that the last time he checked his name was not "Tommy" but "Thomas," but he merely gave her a small smile and continued eating his lasagna. Both of them had no siblings, and had practically adopted each other from the day they met. The other girls sometimes wondered if he'd be okay with Rebecca graduating this year, as he would still have two years left without her.

"Rory!" Jasmine shrieked as Aurora finally joined them. Everyone was friendly towards her, but since Belle has already spent a couple of hours with her organizing their apartment, Jasmine was the only one of who could be said to be excited to see her. The slender blonde was shy and reserved when she wasn't dancing onstage, and she spent most of her time with a commuter, Ella, usually only joining the group when Ella wasn't on campus. Jasmine wished that it weren't just her and Belle who actually tried to get to know her. It always took time and effort to get her to open up, but when she did she was so sweet and surprisingly really fun.

"So, Becca, have you seen a certain John Smith yet?" Jane shot across the table, smiling mischievously.

Rebecca blushed. "He won't get here for another hour. He got caught in two traffic jams today." First Jane and then Mulan began to send her a barrage of questions about what the two had done over the summer. Rebecca had never had a boyfriend until she and John met last April. He was a football player, so they didn't have any friends in common, a fact which sometimes made Rebecca feel a bit awkward about talking about him with her friends. Jane was a bit of a hopeless romantic, and though Mulan always meant well she had never been known for her tactfulness, so it didn't look as though either would be ready to let up very soon. Thomas suddenly cleared his throat and asked what everyone's class schedules were. Jasmine and Belle quickly caught on and soon had the others comparing their fall courses. Aurora, ever the quiet observer, watched in amusement. She was happy to see everyone, but if she were honest with herself she knew that she'd have preferred to spend her night with Ella. She often felt lonely even surrounded by friends.

 

Andy Stockwell stared at the number above the door. Room 807. This was supposed to be where his freshman orientation group met. But why would a room full of eighteen-year-olds be so quiet? He pushed open the door and quickly realized he was probably in for a very boring orientation. Already there were at least a dozen people sitting at desks, and all of them were staring fixedly at their phones.

All except one dark-haired girl who sat primly on top of a desk to one side of the room. She was so pale that for a moment Andy wondered if something was wrong, but as she was calmly watching all the others with mild interest he decided she was just naturally fair-skinned. As he walked over and sat down on the desk next to hers, she watched him, her expression unchanging except for a slight tilt of head.

"Hey. I'm Andy."

"Your nametag says 'Ferdinand,'" the girl observed.

He chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I put 'Andy' as my preferred name on all my paperwork, but they still put 'Ferdinand' on this thing."

"I don't understand why you'd prefer to be called something other than your name-it's a perfectly acceptable one. My name is Sara White. I'm sure you can read, and as I am also wearing a name tag it is unnecessary for me to tell you my name. But our society's current etiquette dictates that the proper way to greet someone one has not previously met is by introducing oneself. So actually it's the name tags that are unnecessary." She said all of this seemingly in one breath, and in so serious a manner that Andy began to consider pulling out his phone like everyone else. But then he noticed that her eyes were alight with mischief.

"Ah, yes," he agreed, copying her serious tone. "It seems a waste to use resources to create items which so interfere with our social customs. Just think of what else these could be used for."

"Showing off our favorite movie quotes."

"Displaying our blood types in case we're all injured in an explosion."

"Assuming said explosion does not destroy the blood type tags, I'm sure the medical community would find that quite useful."

As they continued discussing the potential uses of name tags, Andy marveled at this Sara's peculiar sense of humor. She was, frankly, weird, but in a Luna Lovegood kind of way, and he was actually having a lot of fun. Maybe this orientation thing wouldn't be so boring after all.

Sara, for her part, was thrilled that this guy seemed to enjoy talking to her. She was used to people finding some excuse to quickly leave the conversation after meeting her. Before they became friends after discovering their mutual love of Stephen Sondheim musicals and Twizzlers, she had been able to tell that her roommate Ariel had wished she weren't stuck with her. It would be nice to have a friend among this group of text addicts for the next couple of days.

 

Ella sat back on her heels and inspected her work. The kitchen floor was now literally shining. It had better be; I've had plenty of practice scrubbing floors, she thought grimly. She stood up and and stared in disbelief at the clock on the oven. It was almost midnight already, and she had her first class at eight o'clock in the morning. Muscles aching, the girl passed through her living room and into the bathroom. As she brushed her teeth, she examined the living room out of the corner of her eye. The apartment was still just so dirty. Maybe she could stay up awhile longer and work on it some more.

No. Bad idea. School had to be her top priority, and to do well in it she needed her sleep. Ella knew she should be grateful she had a place to live at all. While scholarships covered the cost of tuition, and an assortment of cleaning jobs put food on the table, the fact was she simply couldn't afford housing on her own, and her family refused to help her in any way. Somehow her godmother Farrah had pulled some strings and found her this tiny apartment for a ridiculously low rent. The kindly older woman had also found Ella her apartment she'd had the previous year of school, but a few weeks ago Radcliffe, the owner, had decided to sell the apartment complex. This new place needed some work, but overall Ella rather liked it.

After the girl had pulled on an old t shirt and pajama bottoms and snuggled into bed, her phone went off. Groggily, she flipped it open and saw that she'd gotten a text from Aurora: "Missed seeing you today! I'll drop by tomorrow morning before your first class to see your new place. :) "

Ella smiled. She'd never really had any friends before she met Aurora-her family had always gotten in the way-and she'd missed the girl over the summer. Still, even though her friend was truly the best she could have ever hoped for, she sometimes still felt lonely, as though there were a place in her heart that could just never be filled. Wait, now she was just being melodramatic. Like, a Hallmark movie melodramatic. Or was she? Ella mulled over this till she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.


	2. At the Benbow Café

"Hey, Shang!" _Ugh, don't sound so eager! Stupid!_ Mulan berated herself as Shang Li scanned the coffee shop before seeing her standing at the counter. _Oh, great. He's leaving the guys. Now he's coming over here. He probably thinks you have an actual reason for interrupting him. Why am I talking to myself? I need to talk to him. Ugh. Stupid!_

"Hey, Mulan. So I haven't really had a chance to talk to you: what do you think of this year's team?"

Mulan's nervousness vanished at the mention of soccer. "Well, overall I'd say this year's freshmen aren't as good as last year's, but they seem really dedicated, so I'm sure we can get them in shape." When Mulan was applying for Disney, she discovered that while their men's soccer team was excellent, there was not yet a women's team. Somehow the coach had heard of her, found out that she was looking at Disney, and complained to Shang, who had just been made captain, about the fact that they didn't have a way for her to play. Shang saw some footage of her playing and was so impressed he had come up with the idea of offering her a position as a trainer/cocaptain of sorts. Mulan never had understood it, but there was some sort of loophole in the school's soccer laws or whatever that allowed this. Though she had known she would miss actually playing in games, she had agreed to come to Disney and try this arrangement. She had loved it from the first day, and she was excited to be starting her second season.

The two continued talking until Shang pointed out that the guy behind the counter had said her name twice and Mulan took her frappe. "You want to come sit with us?" Shang tilted his head toward a table where his roommate David and four other guys, two of whom Mulan recognized as his suitemates, where all eating.

Mulan's stomach turned over. _EEP! OH MY GOSH! Ugh, stop being so stupid! Act cool._ "Yeah, sure."

 

Megara Egan sauntered over to table 4, notepad in hand. "What'll it be, boys?"

A few of the guys at the table began snickering and a girl-Mulan, Meg remembered-who was sitting in the corner turned a deep shade of pink. "And girl," Meg amended with a small, lopsided grin.

"Just coffee today, thanks, Meg," a rather tall, brown-haired guy-Phillip? or was it Felix? no, Phillip-said politely.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be by here for dinner sometime soon," another guy, David, said with a grin. "We know you've missed us."

She rolled her eyes. "Sure I have." The thought that she had in fact missed them over the summer flashed momentarily across in her mind. These guys had always been especially nice to her; even on days like today when they just got coffee from the counter they usually left her a tip. She suspected Mrs. Hawkins, the café owner, may have mentioned something about her situation to them. Meg just hoped they hadn't heard much.

As she turned to go, she heard David's accent-she remembered him once saying he was from Hawaii. "Wait, Meg, could I talk to you for just a sec?" He walked beside her toward the door to the kitchen. "Who's the girl behind the counter? Is she a student?"

"Why don't you go ask her yourself?"

David stepped in front of her, blocking her way. "Come on, Meg!"

She huffed. "Her name is Nani. She just moved here with her sister. She works part time here and takes two classes. That's all I know."

David grinned. "And that's why you're my favorite waitress."

"Whatever." As he turned back to his table, Meg watched him go, half a smile on her face, before resigning herself to the rest of her shift. But when she turned around to attempt to go to the kitchen again, she quite unexpectedly felt a cold splash hit her chest. Gasping with the shock, she looked up a tall, broad-shouldered guy, his blue eyes open wide with surprise. And of course he was holding what used to be a full glass.

"I-I'm so sorry, miss! Are you all right? Can-can I do anything to-?"

"It's fine. Fine." Meg did little to hide her frustration as she finally made it to the kitchen. "Tiana, freshmen are idiots. Help me clean up."

 

Fortunately for Meg, the next group of freshmen to step into the Benbow Café were only there for coffee. Sara had suggested to her roommate Ariel Benson that they needed frappuccinos to celebrate surviving orientation, and it had only taken the bubbly redhead four seconds to send a mass text to every freshman she'd met to meet them for a caffeine fix at four o'clock. The girls across the hall from them, Wendy and Zel, had agreed to come, as had a few students from Ariel's orientation group: Alice Kingsley, Milo Thatch, and Tom Quasimodo, who apparently went by "Quasi." And now all seven of them had crammed into a booth meant for four.

"Zel, why are you eyeing your latte like that? It's not poisoned, at least as far as we know," Sara said mischievously.

Zel blinked. "I've just never had coffee before."

A moment's silence fell upon the group.

"Wait, never?" Quasi asked incredulously.

Alice took a quiet sip of her green tea. "Don't worry, it's overrated."

"Alice, you're crazy," Milo laughed, causing her to smile. "Just try it, Zel."

The whole group watched as Zel picked up her cup and slowly brought the straw to her lips. Ariel was nearly out of her seat with anticipation, the moment was so intense. Time seemed to slow as latte flowed up through the straw. As soon as some went in her mouth, Zel's already large green eyes opened up even wider.

"This stuff is amazing!"

Everyone let out a loud cheer, even Alice, and now Ariel actually did jump up out of her seat. But she quickly sat back down when she saw that everyone in the café was staring, including a table full of cute guys.

"I. Love. Coffee," Zel gushed. "I can't believe I was never allowed to try it!"

"Well, you are now, college girl!" Ariel grinned.

Wendy raised her cup. "To Disney U."

"To Disney U!"


	3. First Day of School!

Tiana Rose let out a huge sigh of contentment as she set foot in the classroom. Microeconomics. Her first class of her senior year. She had worked her butt off, in school and in part-time jobs, for as long as she could remember, and now she had just one year left as an undergraduate. And once she had her business management degree, she'd be off to culinary school and then finally, FINALLY, she could open up her restaurant! People were going to come from all over the world just to try one of her creations. Yes, she had it all planned out.

Naveen Campos swaggered into the room, settling himself easily into the back row and propping his feet up on the table in front of him. His first class of his senior year. He had suffered through three years of business classes—the only kind his CEO father would pay for—and somehow even passed all of them. And now he had this one last year, one year in which to fit as much college fun as he could before he got stuck in an office for the rest of his life. Yes, he was going to make the most of it.

He sat doodling on the syllabus Dr. Smollett had handed him until he suddenly heard her crisp British accent directed at him. "Mr. Campos, you're rather late in taking this class as well, are you not?"

Naveen smiled up at her. "Hey, I'm here now."

"Well, since you two are our only seniors, I'm going to pair you for your term project."

Naveen tilted his head to one side. "Wait, who am I paired with?"

"Me." Tiana's stomach tightened. He hadn't been paying attention? Only the first day and he was already slacking off! As he smiled easily at her, she made a mental vow that she was not going to let him ruin her chances of passing this class. No matter what, she had to stick to the plan.

 

"In conclusion, you all were accepted into Disney Chorus because you are the most capable singers in the school. But that's not going to be enough for you to stay here. To be chosen again, you are going to have to prove yourselves through hard work, beginning tomorrow. You are dismissed."

Ariel closed her music folder and hugged it to her chest. She'd spent Dr. Sebastian's half-hour welcome speech poring over the pieces he'd selected for them to perform that year. There were three times as many as she'd ever sung in a high school concert, and the easiest pieces looked even more difficult than that Italian aria she'd had to learn her junior year. But she wasn't worried. She was excited. Music made sense to her in a way nothing else did.

As she stepped out of the rows of chairs, a bump from behind made her lose her balance a bit and nearly sent her music flying out of her arms.

"Oh, sorry about that." Ariel felt a hand briefly on her arm and she whipped around, unexpectedly locking eyes with a guy she was sure was the cutest she'd ever seen in her eighteen-and-a-half years. His black hair and his perfect smile and his blue eyes—oh, those eyes! She felt like her insides had suddenly melted. When he asked if she was okay she could only nod mutely.

If he thought she was weird, which he probably did, he didn't show it. He merely smiled and said, "See you around."

"Yeah, see you around."

"You replied about eight seconds too late, you know." Sara was standing in front of her. When had she gotten there? Eric had been—eight seconds? Oops.

"Sara, did you see him?"

"My statement that you were eight seconds too late implies that I know who you thought you were still talking to."

"Oh. Right. Well, do you know who he is?"

"I've met him, if that's what you mean. He's a friend of Ferdinand's. They grew up across the street from each other. His name's Eric. He's a sophomore and I'm fairly certain he's a music major. And judging by the seating arrangement, he's probably a second tenor, though he might be a baritone."

In her mind, Ariel replayed his warm voice asking if she was okay. "Definitely a second tenor."

Sara raised her eyebrows. "You got that from three sentences? I'm impressed. Come on, let's go get some food."

Forcing herself out of her Eric-induced reverie, Ariel shook her head. "Maybe later. Dr. Sebastian mentioned voice lessons; I think I'm gonna go talk to him about signing up."

 

"Group three! Go on into the theater!"

Aurora's stomach seemed to turn over. She was in group four. She wished that she were in group three so she could just get this over with. Or better yet, that she weren't in any group at all.

Esmeralda Moore exited the theater with the rest of group two, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. When she sat cross-legged on the hallway floor with her, Aurora groaned, "Why did I let you talk me into this?"

Esmeralda shook her head, her thick black hair swinging about. "Rory, for the last time, you'll be fine! I told you, all dance majors are pretty much guaranteed to make it into the ensemble at least, even if they're completely tone deaf. Which I happen to know you are not."

"I don't want to do this. I've never done theatre in my life. Surely I have no business auditioning for The Phantom of the Opera."

"Listen to me. Miss Hyacinth is in there, helping judge the auditions. You're going to go in there and forget about being nervous as soon as you slip on your pointe shoes. You're going to dance your heart out, she'll insist Clopin cast you as a principal dancer, and she'll enjoy working with you so much at rehearsals that she'll have you dance as Giselle this spring."

Aurora breathed a bit easier thinking about dancing. She couldn't help but add, "But I still have to sing in front of them."

"Don't forget about the cold read," a red-haired boy sitting across from them interjected, grinning playfully.

Esmeralda glared at him. "Peter, I suggest you shut up. I'm trying to give a pep talk here!" She turned back to her friend. "They'll just pair you off with people and have you read a bit of the script. It's no big deal. Though Clopin may ask you to read Madame Giry with a French accent—mine was flawless, by the way." She happily tossed her hair back, but upon seeing Aurora's terrified expression quickly added, "But you can just say you can't do an accent and it's totally fine. It's not like you want to play her anyway. You're just wanting in the ensemble."

"Will I be allowed to start with the dance?" Aurora asked, fingering her pointe shoes in her lap.

Her friend—was Esmeralda her friend? Es spent most of her free time with her group of guy friends or at a theatre rehearsal, so Aurora rarely saw her outside the dance studio. But they'd been through two years of countless ballet, lyrical, tap, jazz, and even Irish dance classes together, and here the girl was, sitting on a hallway floor for the sole purpose of helping Aurora with her nervousness about singing in front of people. So yes, she realized contentedly, she they were friends.

Her friend replied, "The dance portion is usually last, but I'm sure if you asked it wouldn't be a problem to do it first."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Aurora said, "Then I can do this."

Esmeralda pulled her into a side hug. "I'm glad you finally believe me." And she stayed there with her, chattering happily about how much fun they were going to have working on this show, until the theater door flew open.

"Group four!"


	4. Freshman Love

Alice scanned the cafeteria, looking for any of her friends. She knew she was a bit later than usual to lunch, but she still hoped someone she knew would be there. After a few moments, she spotted Milo and her heart fluttered a bit. Here was her chance to finally have some time with him to herself! But no, a girl with beautiful pale hair sat down next to him, and he smiled broadly. Alice realized she was probably Kida, that girl he wouldn't shut up about from his language class.

Alice sat down at the nearest table dejectedly and was picking at her burger when Andy suddenly appeared and sat across from her, looking rather dejected himself.

"Bad day?"

He nodded. "You could say that."

"So what's up?"

Andy's face flushed not quite imperceptibly. "That SGA dance on Friday night? I asked Sara to go with me."

"And she said no?" Alice was surprised. Sara and Andy had been hanging out quite a bit the past few weeks. It had always been pretty obvious to everyone that Andy was crushing hard on her; since the two spent so much time together Alice had just assumed Sara liked him back.

"She said she doesn't think of me that way," Andy griped. "I've been totally friend-zoned."

Normally Allice considered the term "friend-zoned" highly inaccurate to the way a situation actually was, but she held her tongue. Because Andy clearly just needed to vent. And he kind of really had been friend-zoned. And he hadn't made some stupid quip about how "nice guys finish last," which in her opinion was just what guys said to throw the blame for their rejection onto a girl when really it was their fault for going after a girl way out of their league. But that was just her opinion. So all she said was, "I'm sorry about that."

Andy just shrugged. He'd been so sure that he and Sara would be great together. But she evidently didn't feel that way, and there was nothing he could do about it but move on.

Despite his mood, he couldn't help but notice that Alice was frequently glancing over to a table where Milo was eating with another girl. He watched as his friend clumsily knocked a drink all over the table and turned bright red while frantically mopping it up with napkins. The girl was laughing and trying to help him, and apparently oblivious to the way Milo looked at her when their hands happened to touch.

Andy looked at Alice for a moment thoughtfully. Apparently he wasn't the only one to be suffering from an unrequited crush. "Alice, would you want to go with me Friday night?"

Startled, Alice brought back her attention to him. "Wait, but you just-"

"I just figured since it doesn't look like either of us will be going with who we want to . . ." his voice trailed off. When she didn't bother denying it, he said, "It could be fun."

After one last glance at Milo and Kida, Alice took a deep breath and turned back to Andy. She smiled. "Okay. Let's do it."

 

Wendy had never liked football. She didn't even understand the rules. One team was supposed to get the ball to one end of the field to get some points, and the other team had to go to the other end. And there was lots of dog-piling involved, apparently. And the guys' pants frankly made their butts look a lot better than they probably did in jeans. But that was the extent of her knowledge of the sport.

So why was she spending her Saturday night at a football game?

Peter Barrie.

The dance that the Student Government Association had organized last night had actually been a lot of fun, which surprised Wendy. She had figured most college students would consider it too high school and not even show. But she'd gathered that SGA Vice-President Esmeralda Moore had only that year managed to un-ban dancing from the campus, so everyone had actually been really excited about it. No one would say why dancing had ever been banned, though Wendy gathered that the "incident of '85" that she'd heard mentioned in hushed, solemn tones had been pretty bad.

Anyway, she'd been hanging out with the girls when suddenly someone had grabbed her hand and whisked her out for a dance. When she was twirled in to face her mysterious partner, she suddenly found herself face to face with a guy so attractive she nearly gasped out loud. The first thing she'd noticed was his shock of red hair. Then she noticed his brown eyes locked on her own. And then she saw his smile-a mischievous, charming, roguish grin-and she suspected she now knew how love at first sight felt.

He'd chatted amiably all while they were dancing and Wendy found him perfectly charming. When the song ended he grinned and said,"Maybe I'll see you at the game tomorrow." And then just before walking away, he winked. He'd actually winked. No way was he not intentionally flirting.

So now here she was with Zel, twenty-four hours later, at the stupid football game. They'd arrived fifteen minutes late on purpose, hoping Peter would have already arrived and they could draw his attention by squeezing through the row in front of wherever he was sitting. And that is exactly what happened. As soon as halftime began, Peter squeezed himself between the two girls.

"Wendy, right?"

"Yeah, hi," she replied, wishing she didn't sound as breathless as she knew she probably did.

Grabbing her phone that had been sticking out of her jacket pocket, he quickly mashed some buttons before replacing it. "There. Text me sometime so we can hang out." He grinned and then he was gone.

Wendy and Zel freaked out the way eighteen-year-old girls-well, really, any girls-always do over guys. He'd already given her his number! And he wanted to hang out! This was a better outcome than any they'd imagined together as they'd crossed campus walking to the stadium. Tonight had been perfect!

Well, almost perfect. They still had to sit through the second half of the game . . .


End file.
